First day out in London for 6-year-old

[frodo23]

Hi all,

We're taking our 6-year-old son on his first day trip to London on a Saturday next month, and I'd really appreciate some advice from those of you that have done something similar recently (or know the logistics well).

Our plan is to drive early morning (from our home in Somerset) and park somewhere outside of the city, and then get the train into town. I have friends who live in Twickenham and I could possibly park there, but are there any places outside of the congestion zone (and to the west of London) that would offer a quick and easy park/ride solution? We will want day passes for the tube anyway.

Things that we are considering for the day include:

- London Eye ride (must)
- See Buckingham Palace (must)
- Visit to Hamleys (must)
- Space Safari show at Greenwich Planetarium?
- Science Museum?
- Some sort of child-friendly site-seeing thing?

Any advice/thoughts/suggestions would be most appreciated. It's been a few years since my last London visit and I want to make this as special for him as possible. My plan is to be there from perhaps 10am until about 7pm.

Thanks in advance.

f23

[frodo23]

Thanks for all the suggestions everyone.

The plan is to head up in the car and then get the train in from Twickenham...will this still qualify for the 2-for-1 offers? Our local station (Castle Cary in Somerset) offers a speedy service into London but the cheapest compatible tickets, even a month before the day itself as we now are, are coming in at £200 for the three of us. Fuel, parking and day travel passes for us all come in at £75, and that £125 saving would pay for the Eye and all our food for the day.

My son is very much into speed and the Thames Clipper sounds like a great plan...I will have to look into times/prices/locations a bit more for this. He's also obsessed with sports cars and he'll see his fair share anyway. Buckingham Palace is a must for us as his school has a royal connection, and he wants to see where the Queen lives.

We'll probably give the planetarium a miss this time, and we'll maybe take him to Greenwich for a day later in the year.

[frodo23]

SlidingSideways said:

frodo23 said:

day travel passes

Just use you're contactless cards. You'll get the cheapest fares, capped at the cost of a days travel pass. The kids will be free anyway. You only need to buy tickets for the thames clipper.

Really? Forgive the ignorance, but that sounds brilliant. So just use our bank cards, no need to buy a ticket, and it'll cap at £12 a day (or whatever it is)?

[frodo23]

Your Dad said:

Cap is £6.60 - yep, half the cost of a travel card!!

So £13.20 for the two of us (as kids are free if I've heard right) and it just comes straight off our cards without having to buy a ticket?

[frodo23]

Your Dad said:

Buy a Family & Friends railcard, costs £30 tops.

Just done a quick check, 7.30 train from Castle Cary to Paddington & returning on the 17:00 comes out at £93 for 2 adult and 2 child.

Great shout, thank you. I've just checked and, subject to buying a railcard, suitable trains for our journey come in at £82. This is what we'll do I think.